The size disadvantage proved to be utterly negligible, as Flores’
opening bum rush was easily avoided by Hale, who deftly strung
together a pair of knees from the Thai plum and a short right hand
as the coup de grace. Flores dropped to the mat unconscious,
giving Hale the KO just 18 seconds into the fight.

The two exchanged strikes early before Escudero shot in for a
takedown, eventually dragging his opponent to the mat and working
to advance his position. Avila looked to escape, but in doing so
failed to protect his neck from Escudero, who latched onto a
guillotine choke. He adjusted repeatedly until he ended up mounted
on top of his foe with the submission firmly attached. Avila
attempted to gut it out, eventually submitting at 1:55 of the
first.

Jacob
Ortiz seemed to be in over his head against UFC veteran
Edgar
Garcia, who stalked his opponent throughout the opening round
and landed hard single strikes to the head, body and legs while
shrugging off Ortiz’s return fire and takedown attempts.

His legs punished by thudding low kicks, Ortiz attempted to stay
mobile and switched stances to mitigate the damage as Garcia seemed
to play with his proverbial prey. However, Ortiz had one last
gambit up his sleeve as he leaped in and uncorked a massive
overhand right that caught his opponent on the tip of the chin,
dropping him face first as Ortiz threw several more perfunctory
punches for the brutal knockout victory at 4:06 of the opening
stanza.

D.
Mandel

Porter (right) bested Piedmont.

Alliance
MMA’s Erin Beach
fought off a pair of early submission attempts from Roscoe
Jackson, but eventually found himself in top position and
dropping heavy leather on his increasingly helpless lightweight
opponent. A gradual move to side control, mount and eventually back
control with a full body triangle portended the end for Jackson, as
Beach locked in a rear-naked choke for the submission at 3:52 of
round one.

At 170 pounds, Mesa, Ariz., resident Jade Porter
put his undefeated record on the line in a welterweight bout
against Tucson, Ariz.,’s Nick
Piedmont.

Piedmont was able to control the opening stage, reversing Porter’s
repeated clinch attempts and landing hard knees inside before
scoring a late takedown and mount to seal the round in his
favor.

Porter’s aggression became more measured in the second and appeared
to pay dividends, as he began clipping Piedmont with overhand
rights and knees to the body. With the bout appearing close to even
entering the final frame, it was ultimately a hard knee from Porter
that proved to be the night’s most significant strike. Judge Peter
Rogers saw the bout 29-28 for Porter, while Luis Cobian and Cardo
Urso scored the fight a 30-27 shutout for Porter.

In the evening’s opening bout, Steve
Steinbeiss turned in a methodical performance against Dano Moore,
searching for submissions early and often. A guillotine, triangle
choke and omoplata all kept the muay Thai stylist on the defensive,
eventually allowing Steinbeiss to take the back. When a front flip
failed to extricate Moore from the precarious position, it was only
a matter of time before Steinbeiss locked in the rear-naked choke
in the bout’s final seconds, forcing a tap at 4:52 of round one.